Before the Bichard Inquiry into the Soham murders had even closed its doors for the final time last week, we were being told that a similar case could be "just around the corner".
The warning came from the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service, which said that the lack of safeguards employed by churches in the recruitment of youth and children's workers was a "threat to child protection" (News, 31 March).
In a survey carried out on its behalf by Christian Research, the organisation found that less than a third of 750 churches had an established recruitment policy, only 34 per cent took up written references before appointing a worker, and nearly one in 10 had "no selection process whatsoever" and accepted "all that apply".
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